Hydroponics

SAIRAM REDDY PALICHERLA is one of the founders of UrbanKisaan, creating a sustainable and safe future using hydroponics. They are creating local micro-farms, with a low carbon-footprint, and igniting agri-entrepreneurs to bring positive change for humanity and the planet. Here he speaks with LEAH RICH about the work UrbanKisaan is doing, and Kanha Shanti Vanam as a model for feeding a whole community.

- LEAH RICH

Q: Good morning Dr. Sairam. Thank you for taking the time to speak about hydroponics with us. Let's jump right in. To start, what got you interested in hydroponics?

The interest here at Kanha was led by Daaji. He wanted to explore various non-conventional and sustainable ways of growing food. He has been doing this for the last twenty years, in his backyard in the US. This has been his passion - exploring alternative ways of growing food.

Prior to seventy years ago, food was nutritious and safe, but the quantity was not enough to feed the people of the world. There was a desperate need to increase productivity, so fertilizers, pesticides and hybrid crops were introduced. This is also when the needs of the trader came into the picture transportability, storability, shelf life, and packing in boxes became the focus. This happened at the expense of the nutrient content of the food and the needs of the consumer.

In the last seventy years, there's been a complete shift in food growing. Now we satisfy our hunger but not our nutritional needs. That is where the challenges come. It's time to shift back to local food production - I call it micro-farming.

Now we satisfy our hunger but not our nutritional needs. That is where the challenges come. It's time to shift back to local food production - I call it micro farming.

Q: So how does hydroponics fit in? I thought the nutrients in our produce come through the soil, but in hydroponics there is no soil. Can you explain?

Our understanding of the source of a plant's nutrition is also limited. When testing the nutrition content of crops grown in soil and the same crops grown hydroponically, is there any difference?